Timeshare Owners Vacationing When Others Are on Staycation

AIF has finalized the State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry: United States Study, 2010 Edition, releasing some very positive and reaffirming news about timeshares. The annual study, prepared by Ernst and Young, showed an average of 79.9 percent occupancy at US timeshare resorts in 2009 as compared to a 54.7 percent occupancy rate at US hotels. (Source: “STR Trend Report,” Smith Travel Research, April 2010)

Thirty-four percent of US timeshare resorts showed occupancy rates as high as 90 percent and higher, with another twenty percent ranking between 80 and 89 percent occupancy. Only twelve percent of US timeshare resorts had 60 percent or lower occupancy rates last year.

Occupancy Rate for Timeshare 2009 Attests to the Strength of Timesharing

Stats don’t lie. While there will always be timeshare owners who don’t use their timeshare or who feel buyer’s remorse and wish they had not purchased it, the majority of timeshare owners use and enjoy their vacation ownership property. In fact, many timeshare owners believe that in the tight economy of recent years, had they not owned timeshare, providing them pre-paid vacation accommodations, they would have never been able to work a much-needed vacation into their budgets. Timeshare owners frequently have found that they are at the beach or in the mountains enjoying a family holiday while many of their friends and neighbors were left at home, in the backyard on staycation.